Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@jcasabona
Last active September 4, 2019 13:40
Show Gist options
  • Save jcasabona/e6da1a9fceffd5f33beab397f7f55af1 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save jcasabona/e6da1a9fceffd5f33beab397f7f55af1 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Guest Notes for How I Built It Podcast

Guest Notes for How I Built It Podcast

Tips for Good Recording

I'll be doing dual track recording, but if you could record audio on your side that would be great! That way if we see a dip in connection or get weird quality, I can do some track-layering action. To do that:

On a Mac

screenshot 2016-07-29 14 05 25

  1. Open QuickTime Player and go to File > New Audio Recording.
  2. Click the tiny arrow next to the record button and select Quality Maximum and the correct microphone
  3. Drag the volume slider all the way to the left (off)

On a PC

  1. Search for Voice Recorder from you apps (or Sound Recorder before Windows 10).
  2. Click the big blue button to record!
  3. Make sure to save your file when we're done.

Improving Audio

To that end, there are a few things we can do to make sure that we get good bandwidth and audio quality:

  • Please use headphones. That will reduce feedback and echoing.
  • Turn off Dropbox and other syncing services. These tend to kill bandwidth.

Other things that could help if possible:

  • Connect via ethernet right into the modem or router
  • Use a mic other than the one built-in to the computer
  • Restart the computer and click on the Zoom link in the calendar invite right before our call.

Format

We will pick a product you developed to talk about and I will ask 6 questions about it. The target is a 20-30 minute show that's pretty focused.

I will open the show, mention the show's sponsor(s) and then introduce you. We'll then jump into the questions.

Disclaimer!

My job is to make you sound as good as possible, so going in, there are a few things to note:

  1. The interview will be edited
  2. I resevrve the right not to publish an interview.
  3. To achieve the best sound quality, you'll use a decent mic (not a built-in mic or cell phone), and record from a quite place.

Questions

  1. Tell us a little bit about your product and tell us: How did you come up with this idea?
  2. What kind of research, if any, did you do?
  3. I have found recently that talking it out with some folks really helps! Did you talk to anyone about features, business advice, direction?
  4. So...how did you build it? This can be tools you used, coding methods, designing the software, what plugins you used; whatever you think is relevant
  5. (if applicable) Has the product goes through any transformations since it first launched?
  6. What are your plans for the future?

From there I will ask you a final question:

Do you have any trade secrets for us?

You can answer seriously or with a joke - whatever you'd like! I will then close out the show with thank yous to you, the sponsors, and guests.

Conducting the Interview

We will be be talking via Zoom unless there's something else you strongly prefer. There's a custom link in the calendar invite you got. I also like to do video calls, but don't worry, it's it audio only podcast. Speaking of...

That's about it! Looking forward to recording! And thanks for being on the show!

@tevyaw
Copy link

tevyaw commented Aug 19, 2019

FYI: "Restart the computer and boot up Skype right before we record" then at the bottom it says we'll use Zoom. So I assume that bullet point needs updated.

@cdevroe
Copy link

cdevroe commented Sep 4, 2019

+1 on @tevyaw's suggestion

@jcasabona
Copy link
Author

@tevyaw @cdevore done and done.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment